Elementary My Dear Beauty Queen
by Unwillingly Me
Summary: When the terrifyingly strong and scary Clarisse LaRue was found, hanging from a tree branch, innards not in her body, the ever so clever Leo Valdez decide to investigate, not because he cared about Clarisse. No, she was scarier than Annabeth. He wanted to catch the person.
1. I

**So here's my warning, this story is going to be filled with death and murder and corpses. But go ahead and read it. And there's pretty much not a main pairing. **

**Anyways, I'm a teenage girl, so I'm definitely not Rick Riordan.**

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It was a shock. So shocking that it was hard to believe. But the deaths were increasing, a new corpse found each day, already rotting. And when the terrifyingly strong and scary Clarisse LaRue was found, hanging from a tree branch, innards not in her body, the ever so clever Leo Valdez decide to investigate, not because he cared about Clarisse. No, she was scarier than Annabeth.

He just wanted to catch the person.

"No." Leo stared at his best friend, mouth open in disbelief. No? What did she mean no?

"But Pipes-"

"No."

"This is important."

"I said no." She was being so uncharacteristically sour. Of course, that might have to do with Lacey being found earlier in the week, head smashed in by a large blunt object. "I don't want to-"

She was cut off by a very obviously female scream. The two of them rushed to the scene to find what happened. Though most likely, they would find another dead comrade. Drew ran over to Piper and hugged the Cherokee, which first off was a huge sign that something terrible had happened and mentally debilitated her. And Leo, though at first quite proud of his large vocabulary that he used in his head, seriously wished that Drew would stop hanging on Piper so that he could panic and hug onto his friend.

"Gods. No." No one felt like talking, not even Leo. There weren't any words that could describe the horror that the three of them saw. Blood pooled around the victim, or what remained of the victim. "Not him."

One would think that after all that they had seen, fighting monsters, watching allies die in battle, and all the corpses they had seen in the past two weeks would have prepared them. But one can never be prepared to lose someone in such a horrific manner. Limbs were detached from the body, clearly broken in several different places. The heart ripped out, stabbed by one of the ribs. It was almost impossible to recognize who had been so cruelly murdered. But despite all of the blood, they could still see the short blond hair and SPQR tattoo.

After the initial shock wore off, Piper pried her half-sister off and ran up to him, tears forming in her eyes. And all Leo could do was watch his friend as she cradled the boy's dead body in her arms.

He was a friend, a good person, a hero. If anyone had to go out in such a way, couldn't have at least been someone who was out to destroy the world or something like that? Soon, people gathered around, and Leo frowned at all of them, even Percy, who usually made everyone smile. This couldn't be real. Leo looked around, as if he would find the killer automatically. He then shook his head.

It wasn't like they'd stick around for a memorial service or something like that. If they did, they had a sick sense of humor. Whoever did this was sick. That made fifteen people. Fifteen dead. And they still hadn't caught whoever had done it. That was what made Leo so mad. It wasn't like anyone had gone looking. And the gods had to be watching this. How could they not be when their kids were dying one by one?

It was personal now. Leo was going to catch whoever this bastard was and make them pay for all that they had done. Annabeth elbowed him and told him to help her get Piper off of Jason. His first thought was why him, but then he realized that everyone else was having panic attacks, and Percy was no where in sight. He was the only one not crying or freaking out. With a great amount of effort, they managed to get Piper back to the Aphrodite Cabin.

Tears filled her eyes, but it looked like she hadn't shed a single one. It was unnerving. Neither of them had cried. And when he stole a glance at Annabeth, it looked like she hadn't cried either. Was there something wrong with them? Or had they unknowingly known that this was going to happen? Had they already accepted the fact that absolutely no one at Camp Half-Blood was safe from this threat? Were they all going to die? Was this the end? Wasn't the camp supposed to be a safe place?

At least Thalia wasn't here. She had already lost her brother once. Just thinking of how the Hunter would be devastated to know that her brother was actually dead and not sent off to train with a pack of wolves.

This wasn't fair. The world wasn't fair, he knew that. He lost his mom at a young age, and it was his fault. And old sludge lady wanted him dead. But he had friends. He was sure that they would grow old together, the best of friends. He was sure that he would have gotten Calypso off of Ogygia. He needed more time. This wasn't enough. Why was time the only thing he needed? Why couldn't he have more of it?

This had to be a sick nightmare. But this theory was disproved when Piper fainted into his arms. Stress? After all, she'd lost her half-sister a couple days ago and now her boyfriend, who just happened to be his friend. Annabeth ran off to get an Apollo kid. As if they were done mourning Will's death. He was the first, and it had seriously just looked like suicide.

And just suicide sounds really bad, but Leo would take a person committing suicide over a mysterious murder series that seemed to have gotten lost from Creepypasta or something. There was no doubt that foul play was involved. After all, people don't disassemble themselves and rip out their hearts. First off, Leo was pretty sure that was impossible. And secondly, that would be a lot of pain to inflict upon oneself even with a reason.

And thirdly, Jason would never do that. Clarisse wouldn't have gutted herself. Lacey definitely wouldn't kill herself. No one here would. Someone else was here. There was another player in this game, and Leo would find them. For Jason, for Piper, for everyone. Yeah, he could feel this was his job. He was going to solve this mystery.

"Leo?"

"Yeah Piper?"

"I'm gonna find out who did this." Great, he had an ally. Perfect. After all, even though he was a genius with mechanics, he needed a person that understood emotion to help.

"Me too Pipes. We'll find ´em."

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**And that, my friends, is the end of Chapter 1.**


	2. II

**So here's another chapter for all of you to read for your entertainment. That and I'm gonna be real busy these next two weeks. But I might be able to fit in a couple of updates. **

**Don't own anything except for the plot. Because, to be honest, the Lightning Thief would have been filled with murder if I did.**

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Leo paced back and forth in front of Piper. He couldn't think, no matter how hard he tried. It was as if his brain wouldn't let him. Like there was a crossed wire, and he couldn't uncross it. If only they were as smart as Annabeth.

Annabeth. Why hadn't he thought of Annabeth earlier? Whoever this was clearly knew each person's weaknesses and strengths. And if they knew how each person thought and functioned, there was no doubt in his mind that they would know that they needed to get rid of Annabeth. And if they couldn't get to Annabeth, they would have to go after something important to her, something she would give up on life without.

He took a glance at Piper. She was sweating a bit, knees hugged to her chest, shivering slightly.

"I'll be back." She squeaked in response. "I promise. We're gonna catch whoever it is that's doing this, and we'll make them sorry for what they've done."

She nodded, saying, "Yeah. I'll look around."

"No, don't walk around alone. Stay in here." She nodded again. And it might have been his imagination, but she looked kind of happy to stay in the pink cabin. He walked to the door and looked over his shoulder. "We'll have this figured out in no time Pipes, or there isn't a Team Leo."

He actually shuddered at his sorry attempt at lightening the mood. And then he left, making sure to close the door behind him. Gods, he hoped nothing got to her.

* * *

"You're afraid this person is gonna go after me?" He nodded quickly, kind of scared because being with Annabeth was kind of scary. "Leo, I may be the smartest person at the camp, but I don't think that they're going to try kill me because right be able to figure out who they are."

"But-"

"Let's face it, you're being..."

"Logical?" Seriously, he was thinking things through. He was basing everything off of typical horror films. And if he was right, if Annabeth was left alone, she would be gone soon.

"Damn it." In spite of the situation, Leo felt a smile on his face. He thought of something that Annabeth hadn't thought of. That was an accomplishment all by itself because the daughter of Athena seemed to always be twenty steps ahead if everyone else. "Why the Hades didn't I think of that?"

This was bad. Annabeth wasn't mentally ahead. As a matter of fact, it almost seemed like her personality had been switched with Thalia's. He just hoped that Annabeth wouldn't go and die or start shooting him glares when he said something stupid. She took her feet off of her desk and got up.

"None of us are safe," he said, mostly to himself. "It's someone in the camp."

"That's common sense Valdez!" she snapped. "People need to travel in groups of two or three. No one can be left by his or herself. Each victim had gone off on their own."

"Right," he replied, hoping she wouldn't ask where Piper was. Of course, he wasn't that lucky.

"Where's Piper?"

"In her cabin."

"Alone?"

"Probably. She was when I left."

"Idiot!" She grabbed him by the wrist and pulled him to the Aphrodite Cabin. They burst in, her hand on her knife, his in flames. But Piper was there, unharmed, shaking a bit more violently than when Leo had left her, but unharmed nonetheless. And her eyes were a little wide when they crashed in, but she regained her composure quickly.

"You guys alright?" She was asking if they were okay? They ran all the way here, just to see if she was alive.

"Yeah, just a bit jumpy." That was Leo's response. He didn't want to freak her out more than necessary. He saw Annabeth nodding out of the corner of his eye. And then Mitchell ran in, panting heavily.

"You've got to come quick. It's... it's-"

"Who damn it?!" the three of them yelled at the same time.

"Katie!" he gasped. "It's Katie!"

Leo shoved him aside and ran out, shouting an apology over his shoulder. A guess would lead him to the strawberry garden, so that's where he went. But no one was there. He didn't think he had run this fast before. He got back to the Aphrodite Cabin so quickly it seemed almost like he hadn't left. He grabbed the Aphrodite boy by the shirt.

"Where is she? Show me now." Mitchell complied and led them to Thalia's tree. There laid Katie.

It was ironic that the girl loved trees so much. A branch from a tree (that was definitely not pine) had pierced the girl's neck. Her arms and legs cut open, and the bones no longer there. Whoever was doing this know their business well. Where her bones had been were now branches. It was almost like a demented memorial.

"Wait, if those are branches, then where..." Piper tugged on his sleeve.

"Look up." He did as told only to look back down immediately. Hanging from Thalia's tree was the bones that belonged in Katie's body, bits of muscle and tendon still hanging from them. Annabeth looked green in the face.

"Fuck."

"That's all you have to say Valdez?!" Leo had to admit, he did not like this quick to anger Annabeth that had suddenly emerged from what seemed to be nowhere. "Two people have been killed today! That's two more than should have!"

"Ya think I don't know that Annabeth?! You weren't gonna do anything about it! What's your problem right now?!"

"My problem?! My problem right now is you! You and your stupid pointy ears! And your-"

"Shut up!" Annabeth and Leo stared at Piper for a moment. "Fighting is exactly what this person wants. Come on, we've fought battles against giants and monsters galore. We can figure this out. We have to figure this out. Sixteen people have died now, and we don't know why."

"Awh, look at Piper being a peace keeper."

"Don't press your luck Repair Boy. Where do we start with this investigation of yours?"

"Elementary my dear Beauty Queen. We jump right into the case and check out the crime scene. So we'll start with the obvious. Whoever did this has a thing for trees. Clarisse we found hung. Will was tied to a tree. And now part of Katie's skeleton and muscle system are hanging from Thalia's tree."

"And the fact that all of this was done so meticulously that it couldn't have been done with a sword. The precision and attention to detail is so well tuned that the murderer points to the murderer using a knife." Of course Annabeth had a more in-depth look on it.

"Except for when he or she had done in Lacey." The two girls looked like they were going to punch him in the face.

"It's getting late. I'm sure that the killer would love to pick us off one by one."

"Getting scared Beauty Queen?"

"Anyone in the right state of mind would be scared. There's a killer on the loose that we all trust!" They sprinted to their cabins, terrified by what they would find in the morning.


	3. III

**So, I'm really sorry for the two or three week wait I've made everyone wait. But what's important is that the new chapter is here. And so, next I've got to say thanks for the incredibly positive reviews the story's gotten. So thanks. And I know this chapter's a bit shorter than the two before it, and there's some characters that are sort of our of character, so sorry about that.**

**Finally, I'm not Rick Riordan. My name isn't Rick, nor do I have the last name Riordan.**

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Waking up to screams was not a pleasant way to wake up. Especially when you're having a great dream. And for once, Leo was having a great dream, no creepy deaths or flashbacks. His dad wasn't six inches away from his face, staring him down. He was a hero. That's what his dream about. But when Nyssa grabbed him by the shirt collar and dragged him out of the cabin, he was starting to wish he hadn't had such a great dream.

Anguished cries reached his ears, and Leo automatically knew that there was a seventeenth murder. Another friend dead. But what he saw seemed ten times more unreal than the fact that Jason had been killed.

Hanging from long blond hair was a decapitated head. Simple as that. A decapitated head missing two stormy grey eyes. And when he looked a bit closer, the eyes were still there, just not in the eye sockets where they were supposed to be. No, that wasn't the worst part. If you were to look about four feet to the right of the head, then you would see a body tacked up to the tree's trunk with a few knives. And where the head would be if still attached was a crudely carved picture of a spider.

"Annabeth!" Leo heard someone shout, not daring to look away. It couldn't have been possible. She had been just as cautious as him and Piper. Maybe more. There was no way that was actually Annabeth. She couldn't have actually died.

And really, Leo hadn't realized that he had been shoved to the ground until he was pulled back onto his feet. As he watched Percy, who seemed torn between crying and looking like a strong hero, he couldn't help but feel sorry for the guy. He and Annabeth had survived Tartarus together. How terrible it must have been to live through one the worst places to be only to be killed by a mere human with a weird liking to trees.

Seventeen dead. Just the thought of it made him want to throw up. It couldn't be possible. Seventeen. How the Hades did this happen? Annabeth couldn't be dead. She wouldn't wander off on her own. There had to have been someone with her. Annabeth was smarter than that, even though she had a sort of sudden slight personality change. This was impossible.

The only thing that could make this worse was if the Hunters showed up for no reason at all. He couldn't see that happening, but with his luck, Thalia was going to show up, find out her brother and best friend were cruelly murdered, and then she would probably be the next victim. That was just how things were working right now.

And it really sucked.

"Annabeth," a voice behind him whispered. He turned around to see who it was. "They killed Annabeth."

"Yeah, they did. We're gonna get ´em though Pipes, just you wait. They won't get away with this. We're gonna make ´em pay." He had never felt so determined, other than the time that he swore he'd save Calypso. Whoever this was deserved to suffer just like them. Like everyone who was suffering because they lost someone.

The bastard was going to pay.

"Leo, maybe we should just forget this."

"Forget it? How the Hades could we forget?! They killed Jason! Annabeth! Clarisse! And don't forget Lacey! How can we ignore the deaths of these people, our friends, our family?! Think Piper! What would we do to forget?!"

"We could leave camp. We could run away, back to the Wilderness School if we have to. They killed Clarisse, Jason, and Annabeth. How do we have a chance at living if three of the strongest people we know have been killed by the same person? We don't have one. We're all going to die." The whispered words boiled his blood. She was saying that they might as well give up.

"Fine! Run back to Hollywood or some French-speaking place! I don't care! I'll find ´em myself! I'll kill your sister's murderer! How's that sound Piper?!" Piper's face showed only what could be described as a mixture of shame and shock.

"Leo-"

"I'm sure Drew would love to help you pack." He stormed off, leaving the girl standing there. Though she soon sank to her knees, tears streaming down her face and obscuring her vision. She just made a real stupid decision.

She had to stay. She wasn't going to run away. She was plenty scared, terrified really. But there were people less capable than her. At least if she got caught, there'd be a chance of being able to charmspeak the killer out o killing her and into killing themselves. She had a chance, small, but still there.

A quick glance at Annabeth's mutilated body made her stand up. The image of Jason flashed through her mind. It was just as much her responsibility as it was Leo's, wasn't it? Her friend. Her boyfriend. Her sister. She knew them just as much as Leo did.

With that thought, she swore on the River Styx to kill whoever did this, even if it killed her.


	4. IV

**So, I bet you're all real happy about this next chapter being up like twelve hours after the one before it. And I'm real happy because of it too. So we can all be happy. **

**Anyways, I've said it before. I don't own Percy Jackson or Heroes of Olympus as I am not Rick Riordan.**

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"Drew, have you seen Leo?" Piper tried her hardest not to sound scared, but it was hard. Her best friend could be killed easily. She could be killed. Drew could be killed, and as much as Piper disliked her sister, she wouldn't wish a painful death upon the girl.

"No," the taller girl snapped. And Piper couldn't help but think that her sister was slightly anorexic.

Maybe he was at Cabin Nine. So she checked there. And almost broke down when Nyssa told her Leo hadn't been there since he woke up. Then she checked Bunker Nine. No luck there. Then again, it was a giant forge she had only in parts of.

Still, she couldn't find Leo, and she had to apologize for what she said. And she had to tell him that she did want to catch the killer.

The climbing wall. Nope. The Big House. Not there. How could one elfish demigod, that stuck out like a sore thumb, be so hard to find? This seemed more impossible than getting revenge.

"Sorry," she squeaked, having run into someone and fearing that someone was going to be angry at her for running into them.

"S'okay Piper." Or it could be Percy. Percy, who was suffering just as much as she, though probably more. Percy, whose sea green eyes were never calm but joyful but were now downright dead-looking and empty. This was another reason they needed to find the person who was killing everyone. For the sake of the people that were left behind. "How're you holding up?"

"Things could be better."

"I was asking if you were okay, not if things were okay."

"Well, I suppose I'm okay. You?"

"Same." The bitter tone sounded wrong coming from Percy's mouth. Everything was wrong. None of this should have happened. Nothing was right anymore. "I just... I never thought that this would happen."

He broke down, falling to his knees. And if Piper only saw him as a hero that had fought Titans and Giants, then she would think of it as pitiful and unbecoming. But, he wasn't just a hero.

He was Percy Jackson. He was a guy that had seen the corpse of his girlfriend and couldn't have done anything to stop it.

"I'm sorry. You've probably heard that a lot already."

"We... we were supposed to grow old together, laugh you know. We never even got through high school. She's... gone."

"You say she's gone. But when you think about it, part of her heart lives in ours now." It was something her dad had said in a movie once, and it sounded just as cliché as it did then. "And let's face it, Annabeth could never just be gone. If she was gone, then we would have nothing to remember her by. But we can remember her, what she's done, who she was. She designed Olympus of all places. That's way cooler than the Seattle Space Needle or something like that."

"Her eyes, the eyes that stood out when I first met her and she told me I drool when I sleep." That was something Piper didn't really need to know, but if it helped him, then how she felt.

And when she thought about it, shouldn't she be broken because Jason was killed? The bad thing was that she was beginning to forget how his eyes looked, the way that he smiled. Yet here she was, helping Percy because he couldn't forget Annabeth. But she was forgetting Jason already.

The same with Annabeth, and everyone else that had died. She was forgetting their faces, personalities. She wanted to remember, even though it would be sad and painful. She wanted to remember the real things she had done with Jason, other than fight giants. She wanted to remember Clarisse's facial expression when she told Piper that the Aphrodite Cabin was going to be restored to how it was when Silena was counselor or else.

But she couldn't. It was fading away, making everything blurred and confusing. She didn't understand why. Trying to understand what was going on in her head hurt, and she couldn't get past the fact that she knew the person and probably trusted them too.

"Percy."

"Yeah?"

"You shouldn't walk around by yourself. It's not all that safe." That wasn't what she wanted to say. She wanted to ask what color Annabeth's eye were. But that didn't seem like it was the best thing to say.

At least she could remember that much about everyone. They were all important.

"I want to help." Piper didn't respond. Annabeth had helped and ended up dead. "I'm not the smartest person in the world. I know that. But I know I can help. I have to. I need to know who-"

"Alright." Her head was screaming at her, telling her that was not a good idea. She couldn't be that stupid. Sometimes she really hated her logical side. It was always split. At least it felt like she was arguing with herself.

And as if the world was playing a joke on her, a sick joke at that, her head began to start hurting. Like a headache. It was just a headache, most likely caused by stress. Nothing serious. She actually used to get them when she was little. She was fine.

"I'm gonna go find Leo. You want to come?" She hadn't planned on saying that. The words fell out of her mouth. Percy nodded his head. And so they both stood up, though Piper couldn't remember sitting, or kneeling.

It was silent between the two of them, as if an unspoken agreement had occurred, stating that they would only say something if they saw Leo. It was tense. Of course, that was due mainly to the circumstances. It was okay to be tense when there's a murderer on the loose.

Where they anyways? She had been here. What was this spot called? They were out in the woods, but this spot had a name she was pretty sure.

"Zeus' Fist" she heard Percy say in a rushed whisper. That was the name.

But then her headache took a turn for the worse, and she fell to her knees. They hadn't been this bad when she was little. And literally, the only she heard before blacking out was Percy shaking her shoulders, repeatedly saying her name, trying to keep her from slipping unconscious.


	5. V

**Sorry it took me forever to upload this chapter. So, I am going to thank the people that reviewed, favorited, and/or followed. Anyways, I don't own Percy Jackson. I just thought of the kind of sick and twisted plot of this story.**

* * *

Leo figured that it wasn't very pleasant to wake up covered in someone else's blood. Piper's reaction when she woke proved his theory correct. At first, she had this look on her face that said "What am I covered in?" Then the look of realization hit her as she gazed at the red sticky liquid.

"Where..." Her voice trailed off, like she couldn't remember anything for a while. "Where's Percy?! Is he okay?!"

"Percy... he's dead." She looked broken. Upset. And she looked really angry. "Do you remember what happened?"

"N-no. I fainted. Why didn't they kill me too?"

"Well, actually, you've got a couple minor cuts. Chiron said it was probably from a knife." The look on Piper's face was disturbing, like she was trying to think of something but couldn't connect the dots. Or maybe she had a migraine. Either of those were extremely possible, though more likely was that Piper had a migraine.

"Whose blood is this?" Leo didn't answer, nor did he meet her gaze. "Leo. I need to know."

He didn't know, though was most likely Percy's as they had found him dead onto top of Piper, almost like he was trying to keep the murderer away from her. There wasn't anything too gruesome about his. No decapitated heads, eye-less eye sockets. Bones were in place. No trees. His heart was still in his chest, though he had clearly been stabbed. He was just dead.

It was almost like the killer was in a hurry.

He was brought out of his thoughts by Piper's sudden (and not silent at all) sobs. He quickly hugged her and told her reassuring things that probably weren't true.

"We're gonna get ´em. I promise."

"I know we are," she muttered as she forced herself to stop crying. "I'm going to kill them myself."

This anger was uncharacteristically angry. It didn't suit Piper, but Leo didn't say anything. She was usually calm and collected. And no doubt she could fight, but Leo didn't like the anger radiating off of his friend. It was overwhelming.

He could feel her anger. It was affecting him too. He felt mad, even more mad than he had been before. He could feel his blood boiling, which might have been partially because of the fact that he could create fire with just a thought. But then realized that he was mad for a reason different than Piper.

Leo was mad because whoever was responsible for these murders was just as much to blame for whatever was happening to Piper.

"Hey, are you gonna sit and stink up our cabin all day or are you going to leave now?" That was it. Leo didn't care. He got up, faced Drew, and began walking slowly towards her.

"Damn you!" he yelled at the top of his lungs, punching Drew as hard as he possibly could. "Your sister almost died and you don't give a damn! You inconsiderate bitch!"

He went to hit her again, but was stopped. He stared at the hand that had grabbed his wrist. All the anger that had inhabited his body was gone almost as quickly as it had came.

"Fighting each other won't help anything," Piper said softly. "It'll only make things worse. We need to be able to work together in order to find this killer. Fighting each other will make it easier for him or her to pick us off."

Rational thinking. He had to be a strategist, which in theory wasn't any different than what he already was. Maybe if he surrounded himself with other strategists, he'd become an even better one.

He quickly banished that idea from his head. It wasn't all that good of an idea anyways. It was important that everyone be on their guard. They would have to be armed at all times and sleep with their eyes open. Or else they were all going to die.

"Right. Um... sorry about that... Drew." Gods, he was apologizing to Drew. This just had to be the apocalypse. There was no other explanation than that. Chaos decided he didn't like the Earth or its inhabitants anymore and decided to get rid of all of them.

"Yeah. I suppose I should have been a bit nicer myself." Now he was certain that it was the apocalypse. Drew just sort of apologized to him. Well, she didn't say sorry but it was almost an apology. The world was coming undone. Or maybe they were all just losing their minds.

"Alright then, Leo let's go investigate." Piper grabbed his arm and pulled him out of the cabin.

"What's the plan Pipes?"

"We've been at each murder site. But we never got closer than a couple of yards out of fear. Investigations include getting close up. If we're going to solve this, we're going to need evidence. And to find evidence, you have to be willing to get shoulder deep into the case, which isn't what we've been doing."

"So you're saying what Watson?"

"Sherlock Holmes is supposed to be the genius," she muttered.

"Just say whatever you just said in plain English or Spanish." He could feel a smile on his face. A bit out of place right now in the current situation they were in. "Is it just plain old deductions of elementary?"

"Yeah, it's just elementary Repair Boy." He could hear her smile through what she said though he couldn't see her face. "But I'm willing to bet you failed elementary, didn't you?"


	6. VI

**Hey guys, I know it's been a while. About a month or so, but I was busy with attending a cat's funeral and work and school, but I doubt you care. Just know I love all of you, or I wouldn't continue working on this.**

**I don't own Percy Jackson and the Olympians or Heroes of Olympus.**

* * *

Three weeks. Three whole weeks, and nobody had been killed. It was like- "Hey, Piper's getting real serious. Better tone it down a bit." At least that's how it seemed to Leo. He wasn't sure what to think other than he didn't like what was going on. Piper was overworking herself, and the Aphrodite Cabin of all places became the investigation headquarters.

She hadn't slept. She barely ate. She literally tried to put pieces of the puzzle together day and night. It was so bad that Drew and five other Aphrodite kids complained to Chiron. She hadn't brushed her teeth, so her breath didn't smell the best. She hadn't done anything that didn't have to do with the investigation that had started out as Leo's then became hers.

This was crazy. Piper was going to kill herself if she went on like this. He could tell she was getting weaker. It was obvious. Twenty-one days with barely any sleep or food. That wasn't good for someone that was used to getting about seven hours of sleep and three meals a day. It was pretty unhealthy actually.

"Go away."

"Can't you get the Hades out of here?! You're destroying the beauty of our cabin with your typical dumpster look plus you don't care about anything but that stupid investigation. Obsession is not beautiful. It brings trash to a whole new level."

"Look who's talking Drew." Leo really didn't want to be here. But it was his responsibility to get his friend to sleep and eat at least the bare minimum. "You were obsessed with _my_ boyfriend for the longest time! The number of times you locked me in here so you could show up instead of me on our 'dates' is so large I can't even count on both my hands! They weren't even dates! We were meeting with Annabeth and Leo to work on the _Argo II_! Who considers that a date?!"

"Well, at least I'm upset that he died! What have you done?! Nothing! All you've done is faint then act like you never met him! He was probably just a tool for you!"

"I'm not like you! I don't use people as tools!"

"Oh yeah? Well, what about when you charmspeaked the entire Camp to think that you were the one that needed to go on that quest?"

"I didn't even know about charmspeak when that happened! It was a complete accident!" Drew scowled and muttered something under her breath that Leo couldn't hear. But unfortunately, Piper, poor Piper who was working herself to the brink of death, heard her, and by the Cherokee's reaction, Leo could tell that it wasn't anything good.

"Listen, Drew," he interrupted before anything could get out of hand. "Why don't you go act as head counselor for the time being? You love being in charge. Go boss around all your siblings and stuff for a while."

That didn't seem like it was the smartest thing to say to Drew, but he did anyways because he was sick and tired of hearing her and Piper argue back and forth repeatedly. It was annoying, stressful, and he was pretty sure that Drew was winning when they did argue. Of course, if Piper was winning the argument, it was still annoying. But it gave him a headache. And he was sick of having headaches because his best friend and her sister couldn't get along.

Like seriously, they never got along on anything.

"Leo, do you think I'm losing my mind?"

"Ah, Beauty Queen, that's the art of insanity. No one knows if someone's insane until the person's insane. It's almost as beautiful as the most beautiful thing in the world. I don't know what that might be, but I think it's the unending perseverance of a friend, loyal until their last breath or the love shared between lovers, dedicated until the relationship is over, unless one of the two is cheating on the other." He thought for a moment. "Or if said love is actually just lust on display at an orgy or brothel."

"That's an interesting point of view."

"Thinking gets in the way of going crazy chica. Don't worry about it. You're the sanest person I know." He was getting worried for her. She doubted herself more and more. What if they went after Clovis or Lou Ellen? Or what if they killed themselves? She was asking him questions he didn't know the answers to, questions that didn't make sense half the time.

If elephant falls into the sky, will it become blue or will the sky turn grey? That had been the most recent of the useless questions. Leo answered jokingly that both the elephant and the sky would turn red-violet, but Piper didn't find that to be very funny.

"What do I do?"

"Relax." He pulled her from her spot where she studied her map that had belonged to Annabeth and various little figurines that Nico lent her as long as she promised to returned them completely unharmed and undamaged. "Calm down and eat. Take a nap. You're working yourself too hard."

"No! I swore I'd find the killer! I'm going to! I'm going to kill them!" She pulled out of his grasp. "I swore on the River Styx! I'm not going to stop until I find them! Until I kill them for what they've done!"

"Listen here Piper; I'm not happy about what's going on! Do you think I'm glad Jason's dead, that Percy's dead, and that Annabeth is dead?! 'Coz I'm not! But I'm not going to freak out and get myself killed from malnourishment and exhaustion! You have to pace yourself! You can't just jump into a case and think that if you try hard enough it'll be solved!"

"What would you know? You grew up an orphan." Those words stung, hurt real bad. She turned to leave. "You don't know. You have no clue."

She left him there, in her cabin. She _was_ crazy. She thought she could win this alone. This wasn't normal. He hated this. He hated whoever it was that did this to Piper. This wasn't her. It couldn't be her. She was cheerful. She was his best friend. And he couldn't stand this much longer. Piper was lost now. He was going to end up like her if he didn't figure it out fast. He couldn't end up like her. He had to do more than just find the killer. He swore he'd go back to Ogygia. He swore to Calypso that he'd find her.

This wasn't right. It just wasn't right at all. He had to fix it. He just had to fix it all. But he didn't know how.

He sat down on Piper's bunk and tried his hardest to think of a solution. Nothing came to him. He couldn't put lasers on everyone. People would mess around with the probably. And whoever was killing people clearly knew everything about each of them. Knew about Percy's loyalty, Annabeth's fear of spiders, Clarisse's love for war, and Lacey's love for beauty. They knew everything.

He couldn't win alone either.

Leo felt sick in general, nauseous, like he was going to break down anytime now. And he had a headache that kept coming back. And a voice in the back of his head kept telling him not to trust anyone, that not even Chiron could be trusted anymore. After all, most of Chiron's students had been killed in battle. Why was he a good ally?

Maybe these were the thoughts that were going through Piper's head as well. Don't trust anyone because they're all out to get you. Someone is going to kill you if you don't kill them first. Just kill everyone that you suspect, which by the way should be everyone you know. Don't let them know you're nervous. It'll make you look weak and easy pickings. The killer's just waiting for someone to break down.

Don't let it be you. Don't let it be you. _Don't let it be you_. He could imagine it written in blood somewhere for everyone to see. To instill fear in their hearts. And it would probably work too. Don't let them kill you. Don't let them get you. They're out to get you Leo. Remember that. Someone wants you dead.

_Don't let yourself die yet_.

He shook his head and decided to look for Piper, who he found passed out with a suspicious cut across her face. It looked like someone or something had taken claws to her face and decided to drag them as far as possible, on her face. Four cuts, which meant for appendages used. Any common animal could have done it. A person could have done it, but the only person he knew with nails sharp enough to cut through flesh as long as those cuts were was Drew.

Drew, who wanted Piper dead. Drew, who wanted Piper's boyfriend. Drew, who hated Annabeth's guts. Who hated Clarisse because she was friends with Silena, and Drew hated Silena. Thought almost everything was below her.

"Pipes! Come on Beauty Queen! Wake up! Wake up!" He was shaking his friend, wishing that he knew how to perform CPR. But she was breathing, which was good. "_Wake up Piper_!"

As if his words held some sort of magic, her eyes fluttered open, and the first thing he thought was "_That was so cliché_". She gasped for a bit then managed to stutter words. But he couldn't understand anything she was saying. Soon, all thoughts of Drew being the killer were forgotten.


End file.
